After her 16-year-old son got a COVID vaccine without parental consent at a school event run by Ochsner Health, a mother in Kenner is preparing a lawsuit.
Shelly Maturin, a Lafayette-based attorney, is representing Jennifer Ravain and her son, who turned in a consent form without getting his parents to sign it and got vaccinated at East Jefferson High School last Wednesday.
Ochsner held the mobile vaccination event at EJHS.
Maturin is planning to name Ochsner Health, the Jefferson Parish School Board and East Jefferson High School as defendants in the suit, which will be filed in Jefferson Parish. In a written statement, Maturin referred to the vaccination as a “nightmare” that “should shock the conscience of all citizens of Louisiana.”
He also wrote that “every legal avenue will be pursued to make sure that justice is served.”
“The egregious and reckless actions of Ochsner and East Jefferson High School went well beyond any legal or moral bounds and, at a minimum, constitute a battery upon the minor child,” Maturin wrote. “Hopefully, this type of reckless behavior will stop immediately, and no other parents or children will have to go through this nightmare.”
In their own written statement, Ochsner Health responded with an apology and agreed that parental permission should be obtained before minors are vaccinated.
“Ochsner Health has worked closely with schools throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to keep faculty and students safe in the classroom and beyond, and we have been invited by schools to provide on-site vaccinations since the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Pfizer vaccine for adolescents ages 12-17,” read the statement from Ochsner Health chief medical officer Dr. Robert Hart.
“While we firmly believe in vaccinating adolescents to keep them safe from COVID-19, this should be done only with parental consent. Our team has been notified that a student was vaccinated without proper parental consent at a school vaccination event on Oct. 20. We have procedures in place to ensure that all policies are followed; however, in this instance, this did not occur. We have taken immediate action to review our on-site vaccination policies and to ensure that these policies will be strictly enforced moving forward.
“We are in communication with the parent who brought this to our attention. We offer our sincere regret and apology for any distress this has caused.”
As for the Jefferson Parish School Board, they also issued a statement through spokesperson Paris Vinnett.
“Ochsner Health officials have informed us that they are conducting a thorough investigation of the vaccine event to ensure this was an isolated incident and does not occur again... Our standard operating procedures include obtaining written consent from a parent or legal guardian prior to a student receiving the vaccine during an event conducted at one of our schools. We will continue to work with Ochsner Health and our other healthcare partners to ensure vaccination events conducted on our campuses follow this process.”
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